First Aid Corps

On June 10, while visiting friends in Goshen, New Hampton resident Dean Ouderkirk suffered a heart attack.

Dean Ouderkirk the Survivor

He was returning home from a reception for Occupations’ president and CEO. But before hopping on Route 17, he decided to say hello to his good friend, Joe Bayno, who resides on Fletcher Street in Goshen.

Bayno says Ouderkirk would often stop in for a cranberry juice and club soda after running afternoon errands in Goshen — but it was highly unusual for him to do so in the evening.

“We went out to the patio. He sat down — and went straight backward,” Bayno says. “His eyes were staring up at the sky. He was not breathing.”

Bayno immediately reached for his cell phone, which is always with him — he doesn’t have a land line — and didn’t lose a second dialing 911. He was instructed to put one hand under Ouderkirk’s head to prevent it from slamming into the concrete floor as he began forceful chest compressions with the other.

“I was banging his chest with a flat hand as hard as I could,” says Bayno. “I must have done it at least 50 times.”

Officer Christopher Smoulcey of the Village of Goshen Police Department was behind the track at the Harness Racing Museum — less than a minute away — when the medical call came through. Officer James M. Malgieri was on Greenwich Street.

“I had the defibrillator with me in the front seat,” says Smoulcey, who grabbed it as he left his car and ran to Bayno’s front door. There was no response, so he went to the screen door on the side house, where he was able to see Bayno kneeling over Ouderkirk. Malgieri arrived shortly thereafter.

Smoulcey unzipped the AED (automated external defibrillator), donated by Marie Durland on behalf of the Pennings Family in 2002. He then opened the packet with the adult defibrillator pads and electrodes. He affixed one to the lower left abdomen area and the other to the upper right shoulder.

“Mr. Ouderkirk was not breathing. There was no pulse. He was blue in the face and had a glassy stare,” says Malgieri. “Joe Bayno did a good job by listening to the instructions he was given when he called 911.”

Smoulcey continued connecting Ouderkirk to the AED. “It analyzes the heart rhythms, and if it detects a shockable rhythm, it directs that you hit the button to administer the shock,” says Smoulcey.

Ouderkirk was shocked twice.

“I did CRP and rescue breaths for a good 10 minutes,” says Malgieri. “There was a gasp, but no pulse, and he was still not breathing.”

Within a few minutes, a paramedic from Mobile Life arrived, soon followed by the ambulance.

“The two cops and I watched as they worked on him,” says Bayno. “They continued with chest compressions.”

And Ouderkirk was shocked twice more.

After a good half-hour, says Smoulcey, Ouderkirk was lifted onto a stretcher, placed into the ambulance and rushed to the emergency room at Orange Regional Medical Center’s Middletown campus.

The defibrillator that was used to save Oudrkirk’s life was donated to the department by the Pennings family, in memory of their brother, Richard Pennings. During Richard’s illness, many friends and relatives donated to a medical fund in his name. After the loss of Richard, the family, Dr. Nick Pennings, Dr. Anthony Pennings, Margaret Hawkins and Marie Durland, donated the defibrillator to the department using those funds.

Ouderkirk and his fiancée, Carole Syverson, came to the Village of Goshen Police Department on Aug. 13 to meet and express their thanks to people who had a part in saving his life.

Dean and Carol’s celebration of life will culminate this April, when they will be married.

“Carol and I are looking forward to our wedding in April. It will be a celebration of life,” he says.

“There’s clearly something left for him to do in this world — besides marry me,” says Syverson. “Maybe part of it is to let people know what wonderful care is available in Orange County.”

The members of the Village Of Goshen Police Department congratulate them and wish them many years of health and happiness together.

Mount Airy fire engineer Scotty Wolfe Wolfe had just finished his shift and was running errands when he heard the 911 operator dispatch crews to a job site on Oak Grove Church Road.

Scotty Wolfe the Saviour, Ron Haynes the Survivor

When Wolfe arrived, he found a man lying on the ground who wasn’t breathing and had no pulse, so he began CPR.

A few minutes later, when someone said the man’s name, Wolfe realized he was trying to revive his lifelong friend, Ron Haynes.

“My heart sunk a little bit. My adrenaline rose, and I just kept working,” Wolfe said.

Workers witnessed Haynes, 34, fall to the ground after being electrocuted when he tried to plug in a fan to dry newly poured concrete.

After 12 minutes of performing CPR, a shock to Haynes’ heart from a defibrillator brought him back to life.

“I was an emotional wreck. I cried,” Wolfe said as the ambulance raced his friend to Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center.

Wolfe said he was scared Haynes might not make it. “I could see his little boy like mine growing up without a father,” said Wolfe.

Haynes described what happened a miracle and said he’s thankful to have such a great friend.

“I told him if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here that’s for sure, ” said Haynes.

It was a little after 10:30 p.m. on a Monday night, July 12, Alana Nicolson, Nathan Dart and Mark Snider were at Derek Wilson’s Winston Boulevard home. Nicolson and Dart, who are dating, were watching a movie in one room. Snider was in his own room, reading.

Derek Wilson (center) the Survivor

Wilson’s not sure what he was doing — his memory, from a day before to three days after his collapse, is gone. But whatever it was had taken him into the hallway, where he dropped without saying a word.

Dart and Nicolson heard a thud. Snider heard a strange snorting sound, some of the last gasps Wilson would take before his breaths disappeared with his pulse.

As Snider relayed information to the 911 dispatcher, Nicolson checked Wilson’s vitals. No breaths. No pulse.

It had been a few years since she’d learned cardiopulmonary resuscitation as a lifeguard. But her actions were instinctive.

“He’s a friend who I’ve known forever,” Nicolson says. “I’m not going to wait.”

So while Snider spoke to the dispatcher, and Dart checked outside for emergency workers, ready to wave them in, Nicolson pumped Wilson’s chest.

She kept up the compressions, stopping to check on the vital signs that seemed to return, only to vanish again.

When Cambridge firefighters arrived, they took over Wilson’s care, using a defibrillator twice inside the home. Paramedics defibrillated him once again in the ambulance.

Relatives were warned he might have suffered permanent brain damage. None was found.

His parents never left his side while he was in hospital. Twelve days later, he was released. He’s recovering at his mother’s house now, regaining his strength and counting the weeks until he begins classes at York University, studying human rights.

“Mark and I don’t have CPR training,” says Dart. “Believe me, it’s a priority at this point . . . It should be right up there with being able to read, as far as I’m concerned.”

It was nearing halftime during a recreational league game at Suwanee Sports Academy on Dec. 19 when Mike Lulko suddenly felt dizzy.

With his wife and two children watching in the stands, the 49-year-old collapsed.

His teammates — Ken Manning, Will Hamilton and Lance Cook — work in the medical imaging business and are trained in CPR.

They took turns trying to resuscitate Lulko, but couldn’t get a pulse. That’s when Manning yelled for someone to retrieve an Automatic External Defibrillator from the lobby.

“I hooked him up, and he was almost in a flatline,” Manning said. “His heart was in ventricular fibrillation, which means his heart was just kind of quivering there.”

The portable machine quickly diagnosed Lulko. It said “shock advised,” so Manning applied electrode pads to his friend’s bare chest and pushed the button to deliver an electronic shock to his heart. Within about 30 seconds, Lulko was coming around.

“I knew in my heart he would be OK and when I saw him on the ground, I was actually really scared. So I ran off because I didn’t want this to happen,” London Lulko, Mike’s son, said.

His wife and two children watched him pass out on the court, terrified, they thought he might not make it.

“When I saw him doing chest compressions I just something in me said he was gone and he really was gone. I can’t thank them enough they gave me my husband back and the father of our kids,” Susie Lulko said.

Doctors would later tell Lulko that his chances of survival were slim had his friends not thought to fetch an AED, and had the Suwanee Sports Center not had the foresight to purchase one.

“Without that defibrillator, I wouldn’t have gotten up off that floor,” Lulko said.

Lulko is back in the gym and playing sports. The teammates say his brush with death has brought their friendship to a new level.

“I think we’ll always have that bond,” Manning said.

Dr. Craig Levine, an oral surgeon from Merrick, was at a bar mitzvah at the Seawane Country Club in Hewlett last Saturday when he saw his friend Lew Goldman, the host of the event, passed out on the dance floor.

Craig Levine (left) the Saviour

With the help of an automated external defibrillator, Levine revived Goldman.

“I immediately knew that he was in cardiac arrest, and I yelled out for someone to get an AED,” said Levine, who has campaigned to make defibrillators more readily available. “I unfortunately have been through experiences like this.”

In 2005, Levine’s son Robbie, 9, died on a Little League ballfield in Merrick. A policeman responding to the scene brought an AED, but it was too late.

In Levine’s Bay Shore office in April 2007, he saw a patient waiting for a dental consultation collapse from a heart attack.

Levine brought out an AED and saved her life.

“All these things that happen make me think of my son,” Levine said. “I couldn’t save my son, but I saved the lives of two people and spared their families.”

Goldman collapsed during his twin sons’ bar mitzvah.

“I don’t know what to make of it, why this keeps happening,” Levine said Friday, shaking his head ruefully.

“The real story is the AED saved my life,” Goldman said Friday from his Merrick home, where he was recovering. “Craig Levine is a hero.”

“The fact that Craig was there and they had an AED at the Seawane Country Club, and that it happened that night, I’m one lucky man,” Goldman said.

Half an hour into a tennis set Tuesday morning, Nov. 3, Ray Schami,72 , began to lean over, bracing his hands on his thighs, then fell to the ground.

Ray Schami (center) the Survivor

“He was gasping,” said Ron Kydd, 67. “And [his breathing] wasn’t regular. It was sort of one big gasp and then something and then nothing. Nothing.”

John Stevenson, 72, dashed for his phone and called 9-1-1, and he and Kydd rolled Schami onto his back and started doing CPR, trading off between them.

Kydd said that he’d done his training a few years ago and was able to remember the counting for the breaths and chest compressions. And Stevenson says that as a fitness instructor and personal trainer, he has done CPR training pretty regularly over the last decade or so.

“After a few minutes, when it was obvious that Ray’s pulse was weak if it was present at all — it was so hard to tell, because we’re panicking — I went out to the car while John continued the CPR, and I got the defibrillator that my wife and I carry in the car,” Kydd said. “We carry it because we live in Roberts Creek and it’s 15 minutes from an ambulance, if you’re lucky.”

“The first thing it says is, ‘Be calm.’ Well, no chance of that,” Kydd said wryly. “And then it tells you to check the airways and the various steps you’re supposed to do, including attaching the pads to the person’s chest, which I did. And then it analyzes. It says, ‘Analyzing, analyzing.’ And then it said, ‘Shock recommended,’ and ‘Stand back.’ And so at that time I pushed the button and gave the shock.”

Kydd administered two separate shocks, between rounds of CPR, and then paramedics and firefighters arrived and continued working on Schami.

Paramedics took Schami to St. Mary’s Hospital until he could be transferred by helicopter to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, where he was put in a medically-induced coma for 24 hours. He had a defibrillator implanted and was released from hospital Saturday, Nov. 14.

Now, he says, he’s still feeling weak, but is counting his blessings that his heart attack happened in the right place, near the right people.

“I live alone so I could have been alone and had this heart attack and have been found a week or so later by neighbours,” he said. “[My children] would have been concerned [when they hadn’t heard from me as usual] and my neighbours would have walked in to find me dead.”

Jerry Davidson, David Feitelberg and Mike Wilson didn’t expect a call for heroics when they headed out to play golf with their friend Bob McKenzie on Sept. 29.

Bob Mckenzie (seated) the Survivor

When McKenzie suddenly collapsed on the third green, the three men summoned help, performed CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and guided emergency responders to the scene.

Another man who rose to meet the challenge was nearby groundskeeper Kurtis Buyze, who ran back to the clubhouse to get a phone and returned with a B.C. Ambulance Service dispatcher on the line. The dispatcher offered invaluable assistance by guiding the group through their CPR procedure over the phone, Feitelberg said.

“The detailed expert advice gave us the assurance to continue what we were doing until the paramedics arrived.”

Buyze was amazed at the prompt response by local emergency crews.

“By the time I got back, I was only doing CPR for a minute or so before first responders and paramedics got there. I think we’re pretty lucky to live in a community like that.”

Following a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) administered by emergency personnel on the scene, McKenzie’s heart recovered a viable rhythm and he was transported to Lady Minto Hospital for further treatment and assessment.

“I don’t remember much of the incident, but I’m feeling pretty good now apart from sore ribs,” McKenzie said.

“I was truly blessed to be with my great friends who knew what to do — CPR — and they did it with the greenskeeper’s help,” said McKenzie.

On July 30, Ted Seaman slumped to the floor of the Cheltenham squash court after suffering a massive heart attack.

Ross, 32, says he got the fright of his life when Ted had his heart attack.

He said: “His face was deep purple and Ted started to stumble backwards.”

“I grabbed hold of him and lowered him to the floor but the rest of him was deathly white.”

“I used to be a lifeguard but I haven’t done any training for years so I thought the best thing to do was make sure someone was on their way. I shouted for an ambulance to be called and then I screamed for someone who knew first aid.”

“I knew I had to do something so I turned him on his back.”

Fortunately, fellow club-member Dr Robinson was in the building and came running over.

Working as a team, he and Ross gave him mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions, before the doctor used the defibrillator.

Oil company worker Ross, who lives in Clarence Square, said: “It all happened within a few minutes, but it seemed like half an hour.”

“I was just willing him to stay alive. It really hit me when I got home how close he was to dying. I’m just so glad he made it through.”

He was rushed to Cheltenham General Hospital before being transferred to the heart unit at Bristol Royal.

Had the machine not been available, vital seconds would have been lost before paramedics arrived and Ted would have died.

He said: “The first thing I knew about it was when I woke up in hospital and there were doctors all around me.”

“I hadn’t felt any pain or dizzyness beforehand so there were no warning signs. I just collapsed and that was it.”

“I had a very sore chest afterwards, but I put that down to the 16-stone man I’d just beaten at squash pushing on my chest!”

“I wouldn’t be here if that piece of equipment wasn’t there and Ross hadn’t reacted the way he did. I owe him a big thank you.”

Ted, from Churchill Drive, Charlton Kings, regularly played squash and considered himself fit before he collapsed.

Di Pierce, the manager of the East Glos Club, in Old Bath Road, said: “Thankfully the defibrillator was here to help. It’s something we’ve had for four years after being persuaded by the ambulance service it would be a sensible idea.”

A Great Western Ambulance spokesman said: “I’m delighted to hear Mr Seaman continues to make a good recovery. Our paramedics who arrived on scene believe that the excellent quality CPR given to him in the first crucial minutes before they arrived saved his life.”